Streaming Services in the Music Industry

音乐产业最近达到了120亿英镑收入的“历史临界点”，在线流媒体服务被视为该行业命运变化的原因（卫报，BBC，2017）。在线流媒体现在是最流行的音乐消费方式，也是音乐行业新商业模式的重要组成部分。然而，人们普遍担心音乐家（特色艺术家和会议音乐家）和音乐创作者（作曲家和词曲作者）没有获得音乐流媒体蛋糕的公平份额。2014年，当时Spotify上最受欢迎的艺术家之一泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）因对收入不满而从服务中撤回了她的音乐（Business Insider UK，2014）。 流媒体服务已经展示了快速的创新，并在为用户提供的内容方面发生了很大的变化。最初，用户可以按需搜索和访问特定内容，但现在他们还可以创建和共享播放列表，收听策划的播放列表，并创建自己的虚拟个性化电台。在对流媒体服务的需求和吸收的同时，传统广播也出现了下滑;流媒体服务已经超过了数字下载产生的收入（彭博社，2016）。那么我们应该如何对流媒体进行分类呢？它是不是类似于下载？是新收音机吗？或者它是一个衍生的混合体？ 这些问题对于音乐家和音乐创作者的权利至关重要，因为根据英国的法律的制度（CDPA 1988），数字下载或按需访问内容（拉媒体）与无线电广播（推送媒体）的处理方式不同。前者受“提供”权的制约，后者受“向公众传播”权的制约。这种分类对收入流动、许可协议、版权法庭为在线服务设定的费率以及音乐家和音乐创作者是否受益以及受益的程度都有影响。虽然流媒体服务的性质、用户体验和音乐市场在过去几年发生了变化，但英国的法律仍然保持不变。因此，该法律与数字音乐消费的技术发展、市场变化和用户习惯不同步。拟议的研究将直接解决音乐家和音乐创作者及其代表面临的一个关键挑战：流媒体收入的划分（剖析数字美元，2015）。这将是第一个充分理解和评估流媒体服务在数字音乐消费中的作用和地位的学术研究，并评估如何通过以下方式使法律的制度适合目的：-对数字音乐消费的发展和最近变化的报告进行系统审查：流媒体服务，广播和下载;- 评估来自流媒体平台和广播剧的数据，以及对流媒体服务如何产生报酬的行业见解; -人种学研究，以及对关键数字平台和音乐行业利益相关者的采访;以及，将行业内的现实情况和市场与法律的框架进行比较。

The music industry has recently reached a "historical tipping point" of revenues of £12bn and online streaming services are seen as the reason behind the industry's changing fortunes (The Guardian, The BBC, 2017). Online streaming is now the most popular method of music consumption and a firm part of the new business model in the music industry. Yet, there has been wide-spread concern that musicians (featured artists and session musicians) and music creators (composers and songwriters) are not receiving a fair share of the music streaming pie. In 2014, Taylor Swift, one of the most popular artists on Spotify, at the time, withdrew her music from the service, due to dissatisfaction with resulting revenues (Business Insider UK, 2014). Streaming services have demonstrated rapid innovation and changed considerably in terms of what is on offer for their users. Initially, users could search and access specific content on demand, but now they can, in addition, create and share playlists, listen to curated playlists, and create their own virtual personalised radio stations. In parallel to the demand and uptake of streaming services, traditional radio has seen a decline; and streaming services have surpassed revenues generated from digital downloads (Bloomberg, 2016). So how should we classify streaming? Is it akin to a download? Is it the new radio? Or is it a derived hybrid? These questions are crucial for the rights of musicians and music creators because under the legal regime in the UK (CDPA 1988), a digital download or on-demand access to content (pulled media) is dealt with differently from a radio broadcast (pushed media). The former is governed by the 'making available' right and the latter by 'communication to the public'. This classification has an impact on the revenues that flow, the licensing deals that are in place, the rates that are set by the Copyright tribunal for online services, and whether musicians and music creators benefit and, if so, to what extent. While the nature of streaming services, the user experience, and the music market has changed in the last few years, the law in the UK has remained static. Consequently, the law is out of step with technological developments, market changes, and user habits in digital music consumption. The proposed research will directly address a key challenge faced by musicians and music creators, and their representatives: the division of streaming income (Dissecting the Digital Dollar, 2015). It will be the first academic study that fully understands and evaluates the role and place of streaming services within digital music consumption, and assesses how the legal regime can be made fit for purpose through: - Conduct of a systematic review of reports on development of, and recent changes in digital music consumption: streaming services, radio, and downloads; - Evaluation of data from streaming platforms and radio plays, and industry insight on how remuneration flows from streaming services; - Ethnographic research, and interviews with key digital platformsand music industry stakeholders; and,Comparison of the realities within the industry, and the market,with the legal framework.